There is a well-documented story about Myeerah. It begins before the American Revolution, during the westward movement when Ohio was a frontier populated by several Indian tribes. It centers on the Zane family--a well known family in Ohio history--and the Wyandot Indian tribe, part of the Huron nation. The Wyandots had originally lived in southern Ontario, but were driven south into the Upper Ohio valley by the Iroquois in the early 18th century.
In 1762 two brothers, Isaac and Jonathan Zane, aged 9 and 11, were kidnapped by Indians while returning home from school in what is now Moorefield, West Virginia. Isaac and Jonathan Zane had a sister, Elizabeth, who was the protagonist in Zane Grey's 1904 novel "Betty Zane." Elizabeth's claim to fame was that during a 1782 Indian attack on Fort Henry at Wheeling, West Virginia, she transported gunpowder to the fort for the colonial defenders, at great risk to herself. Myeerah is a major character in that book.
Isaac and Jonathan were taken to Detroit, then to what is now Sandusky, Ohio, on Lake Erie, where they were kept by the Porcupine clan of the Wyandot tribe. They lived with the chief, Tarhe ("Tar-hay"), his French-Canadian wife, Mlle. Durante, and their daughter, Myeerah. Tarhe meant "The Tree," but he was called "The Crane" by French settlers because of his height and slender build. The French called Myeerah "The White Crane" because of her father's name and her fair skin.
Two yelater Jonathanthan, age 13, was ransomed and returned to his family. Tarhe had become particularly fond of Isaac and he refused to accept ransom for Isaac. Isaac lived with the Wyandots as Tarhe's adopted son. In 1771, at age 18, Isaac left the Wyandots and returned to civilization. He eventually returned to the Wyandots and, in 1777, married Myeerah; he was 24 and she was 19.
Tarhe joined the other Ohio tribes in their alliance with the British during the Revolution. In 1794 he fought against the Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, where the American forces decisively ended the Ohio Indians' hopes of maintaining their territory and integrity. A year later, in 1795, the Treaty of Greenville ceded large tracts of Indian lands in the upper Ohio Valley to America. The Indians were given hunting rights in perpetuity, but perpetuity came quickly--in 1843 the Wyandots were relocated to the Kansas Territory. That treaty was signed by Tarhe, among other Indian chiefs, and by Isaac Zane, who served as translator.
Following the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Tarhe's Wyandots became firm American allies. During the War of 1812, at age 70, Tarhe led his warriors on an expedition into Canada under the leadership of the future (but short-lived) President, General William Henry Harrison. They defeated the British at the Battle of the Thames. At Tarhe's death in 1818, he was honored by the Ohio tribes and Harrison publicly expressed his admiration for Tarhe as 'the noblest of them all.'
Isaac Zane served as an intermediary between colonial Americans and the Indian nations of the area. Isaac and Myeerah were the original settlers of Zanetown, now Zanesfield, Ohio, where they established the first fort in that area. Zanesfield is today a community of 250 souls. Isaac and Myeerah had three sons and four daughters, most of whom married Wyandots. Myeerah died in February 1816, Isaac eight months later.
I am a descendent of Myeerah and Isaac Zane.
